Like many Americans, you probably spent at least a few minutes on Sunday trying to remember how to change the clock on your microwave and stove. Or at least had an internal conversation with yourself about the pros and cons of just leaving them the way they are for the next several months. Either way, this weekend is, we’re guessing, the least favorite of the year as we travel through time an hour forward and spring forward.On Sunday, most of America entered Daylight Savings Time. DST has a complicating history going back to World War I, then was observed sporadically before Lyndon B. Johnson signed an act in 1966. In the 1980’s President Ronald Reagan made a few more tweaks (his signed law is why the change occurs at 2 a.m.) before George W. Bush in 2005 moved the time change back from April to March, as it’s currently observed. The positives of this weekend mean we gain an hour of sunlight in the evening. The negatives? For most, losing an hour of sleep is bad enough. But it goes deeper than that.Studies show a variety of bad things that happen in correlation to Daylight Savings Time. Hospitals report heart attack visits increase by 24 percent the Monday after the time change (and rates fall 21 percent the Monday when we turn the clocks back and gain an hour of sleep in November). In 1999, Johns Hopkins University and Stanford researchers looked at highway travel data and found a significant increase in roadway deaths the Monday after clocks move forward an hour compared to a normal Monday. Other Canadian scientists found an increase in traffic accidents. So is it worth it?Studies also show crime decreases with the added sunlight, while time spent exercising increases. Hawaii and Arizona don’t observe DST since their geographic location nearer the equator means the sun rises and sets around the same time every day regardless of season. About half of the other U.S. states, including Pennsylvania (let’s hope!) and California, are angling to do away with DST. The Los Angeles Times’ editorial board even took to its pages on Sunday, arguing “There’s just no good reason to keep skipping back and forth in time every year.” The Watch Doctor, for one, agrees.

Michael Arthur

Jerome Schley Sr.

I don’t like daylight savings time either. I used to drive Amish neighbors almost daily. Except on Sundays, the Amish do their own things on Sundays. DST is not used by the Amish and they prosper just fine without changing the time on their Mechanical clocks. It sometimes caused confusions regarding pickup times. Some we jokingly called it English time or Amish time. I would sometimes arrive an hour early in the spring or early summer if not specified as to Amish ( EST ) or English (DST).
Seams to me we could live just as well by adjusting our schedule in order to get things done in our own lives, rather than making society accommodate industrial and political schedules.

Annie-Alex

Good point about Daylight Saving Time. I hate it really makes life stressful one hour ahead, one hour back. Then changing all the gadgets to the right time all over the house. This year my car was the easiest to change and the world of Apple automatically changes the time. California is ready to change to no DST just the government holding us up. Makes sense with AZ to easy and Hawaii to the West. Once California changes the entire West Coast will follow.

Jim Bianchi

If you think only DST is outrageously absurd, I once read something about how a county in South-Eastern Oregon declared itself to be in the Mountain time zone (instead of Pacific time), while a county in the Western panhandle of Florida declared itself to be in the Central time zone. Which means that the West Coast and the East coast of this country are only one time zone apart! Go figure..

Michael Crestohl

I like DST because changing to it marks the beginning of Spring which is my favourite season. It is true that dhanging the clocks twice a year is a chore but the benefits of daylight later in the evenings is worth it to me.

Time is relative anyways. We don’t “lose” or “gain” an hour. The number is different.

Ron Little

Melissa Johnson

I’m with you Michael…I love DST! I love the extra light after 4pm (I’m in FL) to get out in my boat after work until the sun goes down (beautiful on the Gulf!) & a little less heat too. It too, for me, signals spring & summer are here! I set my watch (Thanks Mark!) & phones do it themselves…so no problem here!
Happy Spring y’all!

El Chapo

Doubt it will ever change. The politicians claim it’s for “the children” and that stops people from voting/arguing against doing away with it. I don’t have a dog in this fight, too many other more important issues to resolve.

MelodyMan

Fort those of us who live in the Northwoods where we have had over a hundred inches of snow this winter…we welcome it. In fact it is celebrated. SAD (Seasonal Sleep Disorder), brought on by lack of sunlight is a very real phenomenon. Taking five minutes to adjust our kitchen appliances, “Rolex Chronographs” and car clocks are an easy trade-off

Lucian

I’d like to know how they sort out time cards for people working the night shift. Do they get paid an extra hour while not actually working that hour at 2am when they clocks go forward? If your shift finishes at 3am, do you get to go home an hour early and not work your full time for that day/night?

Bob Ranson

Larry

Well, include me in the ones who love Daylight Saving Time. My wife works until 8 PM so at this time of year, she gets to come home before total darkness. If they want to make a change, then for me I would like it to remain as it is now all year long. Because it sure is depressing when we change the clocks back to regular time and it gets dark at 5:30 PM.

Brad Kaste

DST for sure creates a paint in the butt in the fall,…stopping the various clocks for an hour for the new time adjustment. What I don’t care for too when Bush moved DST from April to March back in 2005. It doesn’t ‘feel right.’ Too early no matter what the reasons why it was done. Having it begin in April was another sign of spring and warmer weather coming,…along with the robin grabbing worms in the front lawn.

Tom

Jim Watson

As said California Prop 7 is for the state to stay an hour ahead. Washington has a proposal and Oregon is considering it.
On the other hand, Florida has a bill to stay on Standard Time; the opposing proposal to stay an hour ahead did not get out of committee.

Tom Gonzales

Dude, you are not the only one that hates it!! My only saving grace is that I live in Arizona and we do not observe the damn thing. The down side is that I have clients in most states and my calling time have to shift. Another bad thing is that I have to screw with the atomic clock on the wall (again) so that it could reflect the changes! Why in the world do we have to this thing anyway?
Love your articles.
Tommy

MS

Guess I am the only one here who likes it, but I really do. More evening light means I can sail (Lake Michigan) until 10PM in the height of summer. Now, in March, the sun is setting at 7:20 instead of 6:20. I can now bike or walk after work because it is still light.